The Birth of a Medium
How the seeds of American photojournalism were sown in the Civil War
By Eli Randolph and Madeline Powell
Photography during the war
Four soldiers sit on a hill over looking a military camp.
While photographs of earlier conflicts do exist, the American Civil War is considered the first major conflict to be extensively photographed. Not only did intrepid photographers venture onto the fields of battle, but those very images were then widely displayed and sold in ever larger quantities nationwide.
Photographers such as Mathew Brady, Alexander Gardner, and Timothy O'Sullivan found enthusiastic audiences for their images as America's interests were piqued by the shockingly realistic medium. For the first time in history, citizens on the home front could view the actual carnage of far away battlefields. Civil War photographs stripped away much of the Victorian-era romance around warfare.
During the Civil War, it was difficult for photographers to take photographs. Two men were needed to take one photograph. The photographer and his assistant would arrive at a location in a mobile darkroom.
Photographers such as Mathew Brady, Alexander Gardner, and Timothy O'Sullivan found enthusiastic audiences for their images as America's interests were piqued by the shockingly realistic medium. For the first time in history, citizens on the home front could view the actual carnage of far away battlefields. Civil War photographs stripped away much of the Victorian-era romance around warfare.
During the Civil War, it was difficult for photographers to take photographs. Two men were needed to take one photograph. The photographer and his assistant would arrive at a location in a mobile darkroom.
The assistant would mix toxic photographic chemicals and pour them on a clean glass plate. After the chemicals were given time to evaporate, the glass plate would be sensitized by being immersed – in darkness – in a bath solution. Finally, once placed in the camera, which had already been focused and positioned by the photographer, the photographer would quickly “expose” the plate towards the subject that he is photographing and then quickly rush to the darkroom wagon for developing. Each fragile glass plate had to be treated with great care after development – a difficult task on a highly mobile and often primitive battlefield many miles away from the closest photography studio.
While photography of the 1860's would seem primitive by the technological standards of today, many of the famous Civil War photographers of the day were producing sophisticated three-dimensional images or "stereo views" These stereo view images proved to be extremely popular among Americans and a highly effective medium for displaying life-like images.
While photography of the 1860's would seem primitive by the technological standards of today, many of the famous Civil War photographers of the day were producing sophisticated three-dimensional images or "stereo views" These stereo view images proved to be extremely popular among Americans and a highly effective medium for displaying life-like images.
"The Dead of Antietam"
An excerpt about the exhibit published in the New York Times on October 20, 1862, speaks to the sober mood of the onlookers:
These poor subjects could not give the sun sittings, and they are taken as they fell, their poor hands clutching the grass of around them in spasms of Pain, or reaching out for a help which none gave. Union, soldier and Confederate, side by side, here they lie, the red light of battle faded from their eyes but their lips set as when they met in the last fierce change which located their souls and sent them grappling with each other and battling to the very grass of Heaven. The ground whereon they lie is torn by shot and shell, the grass is trampled down by the tread of hot, hurrying feet, and little rivulets that and scarcely be of water trickling along the earth like tears over a mother’s face. It is a bleak, barren plain and alone it bends an ashen sullen sky; there is no friendly shade or shelter from the noonday sun or the midnight dews; coldly and unpityingly the stars will look down on them and darkness will come with night to shut them in. But there is a poetry in the scene that no green fields or smiling landscapes can possess. Here lie men who have not hesitated to seal and lamp their convictions with their blood, -- men who have flung themselves into the great gulf of the unknown to teach the world that there are truths dearer than life, wrongs and shames more to be dreaded than death. And if there be on earth one spot where the grass will grow greener than on another when the next Summer comes, where the leaves of Autumn will drop more lightly when they fall like a benediction upon a work completed and a promise fulfilled, it is these soldiers' graves.
These poor subjects could not give the sun sittings, and they are taken as they fell, their poor hands clutching the grass of around them in spasms of Pain, or reaching out for a help which none gave. Union, soldier and Confederate, side by side, here they lie, the red light of battle faded from their eyes but their lips set as when they met in the last fierce change which located their souls and sent them grappling with each other and battling to the very grass of Heaven. The ground whereon they lie is torn by shot and shell, the grass is trampled down by the tread of hot, hurrying feet, and little rivulets that and scarcely be of water trickling along the earth like tears over a mother’s face. It is a bleak, barren plain and alone it bends an ashen sullen sky; there is no friendly shade or shelter from the noonday sun or the midnight dews; coldly and unpityingly the stars will look down on them and darkness will come with night to shut them in. But there is a poetry in the scene that no green fields or smiling landscapes can possess. Here lie men who have not hesitated to seal and lamp their convictions with their blood, -- men who have flung themselves into the great gulf of the unknown to teach the world that there are truths dearer than life, wrongs and shames more to be dreaded than death. And if there be on earth one spot where the grass will grow greener than on another when the next Summer comes, where the leaves of Autumn will drop more lightly when they fall like a benediction upon a work completed and a promise fulfilled, it is these soldiers' graves.
Mathew Brady
Mathew Brady is often referred to as the father of photojournalism and is most well known for his documentation of the Civil War. His photographs, and those he commissioned, had a tremendous impact on society at the time of the war, and continue to do so today. He and his employees photographed thousands of images including battlefields, camp life, and portraits of some of the most famous citizens of his time including Abraham Lincoln and Robert E. Lee.
Brady was born in Warren County, New York in the early 1820’s to Irish immigrants, Andrew and Julia Brady. Little is known about his early life, but historians believe that during a trip to the Albany area, in search of a cure for an eye inflammation, he met portrait painter William Page. It is also believed that through William Page, Brady met Samuel F.B. Morse. Morse, a professor of art, painting, and design at New York University and the inventor of the telegraph likely tutored Brady in the newly developed technology of daguerreotype, the process of creating a mirror image on a silver-surfaced copper plate.
Brady was born in Warren County, New York in the early 1820’s to Irish immigrants, Andrew and Julia Brady. Little is known about his early life, but historians believe that during a trip to the Albany area, in search of a cure for an eye inflammation, he met portrait painter William Page. It is also believed that through William Page, Brady met Samuel F.B. Morse. Morse, a professor of art, painting, and design at New York University and the inventor of the telegraph likely tutored Brady in the newly developed technology of daguerreotype, the process of creating a mirror image on a silver-surfaced copper plate.
Confederate dead near the Burnside Bridge. This photograph suggests that these two bodies – both on their backs and the pockets of one turned out – had been searched before Gardner and Gibson arrived on the scene.
At the outbreak of the Civil War, Brady sought to create a comprehensive photo-documentation of the war. At his own expense, he organized a group of photographers and staff to follow the troops as the first field-photographers. Brady supervised the activities of the photographers, including Timothy H. Sullivan, Alexander Gardner, and James F. Gibson, preserved plate-glass negatives, and bought from private photographers in order to make the collection as complete as possible. Brady and his staff photographed many images of the Civil War including the Fist Battle of Bull Run, Antietam, and Gettysburg.
In 1862 Brady shocked the nation when he displayed the first photographs of the carnage of the war in his New York Studio in an exhibit entitled "The Dead of Antietam." These images, photographed by Alexander Gardner and James F. Gibson, were the first to picture a battlefield before the dead had been removed and the first to be distributed to a mass public. These images received more media attention at the time of the war than any other series of images during the rest of the war A New York Times article in October, 1862, illustrates the impression these images left upon American culture stating, "Mr. Brady has done something to bring home to us the terrible reality and earnestness of war. If he has not brought bodies and laid them in our door-yards and along the streets, he has done something very like it…"
In 1862 Brady shocked the nation when he displayed the first photographs of the carnage of the war in his New York Studio in an exhibit entitled "The Dead of Antietam." These images, photographed by Alexander Gardner and James F. Gibson, were the first to picture a battlefield before the dead had been removed and the first to be distributed to a mass public. These images received more media attention at the time of the war than any other series of images during the rest of the war A New York Times article in October, 1862, illustrates the impression these images left upon American culture stating, "Mr. Brady has done something to bring home to us the terrible reality and earnestness of war. If he has not brought bodies and laid them in our door-yards and along the streets, he has done something very like it…"
Mathew Brady's photo of a Civil War hospital housing soldiers.
Alexander Gardner
Alexander Gardner’s work as a Civil War photographer has often been attributed to his better known contemporary, Mathew Brady. It is only in recent years that the true extent of Gardner’s work has been recognized, and he has been given the credit he deserves. Gardner was born in Paisley, Scotland in 1821, later moving with his family to Glasgow. In 1850, he and his brother James travelled to the United States to establish a cooperative community in Iowa. Returning to Scotland to raise more money, Gardner purchased the Glasgow Sentinel, quickly turning it into the second largest newspaper in the city.
In 1856, Gardner decided to immigrate to America, eventually settling in New York. He soon found employment with Mathew Brady as a photographer. At first, Gardner specialized in making large photographic prints, called Imperial photographs, but as Brady’s eyesight began to fail, Gardner took on more and more responsibilities. In 1858, Brady put him in charge of the entire gallery.
In 1856, Gardner decided to immigrate to America, eventually settling in New York. He soon found employment with Mathew Brady as a photographer. At first, Gardner specialized in making large photographic prints, called Imperial photographs, but as Brady’s eyesight began to fail, Gardner took on more and more responsibilities. In 1858, Brady put him in charge of the entire gallery.
A portrait of President Lincolin taken by Alexander Gardner.
With the start of the Civil War in 1861, the demand for portrait photography increased, as soldiers on their way to the front posed for images to leave behind for their loved ones. Gardner became one of the top photographers in this field. After witnessing the battle at Manassas, Virginia, Brady decided that he wanted to make a record of the war using photographs. Brady dispatched over 20 photographers, including Gardner, throughout the country to record the images of the conflict. Each man was equipped with his own travelling darkroom so that he could process the photographs on site.
Late in the war, the U.S. government turned to Gardner and his staff for several special assignments. On April 28, 1865, Gardner was present when Timothy O’Sullivan took one autopsy photograph of John Wilkes Booth. Working under close supervision, the photographers were allowed to make only one print before turning it and the negative plate over to a waiting army officer. Neither print nor negative
have been found.
Later that spring, Gardner was allowed to photograph some of the men suspected of conspiring to assassinate Lincoln. These photographs were taken on either the U.S.S. Montauk or the U. S. S. Saugus.
Both ships were anchored in the Washington D.C. Naval Yard and used to house prisoners.
Late in the war, the U.S. government turned to Gardner and his staff for several special assignments. On April 28, 1865, Gardner was present when Timothy O’Sullivan took one autopsy photograph of John Wilkes Booth. Working under close supervision, the photographers were allowed to make only one print before turning it and the negative plate over to a waiting army officer. Neither print nor negative
have been found.
Later that spring, Gardner was allowed to photograph some of the men suspected of conspiring to assassinate Lincoln. These photographs were taken on either the U.S.S. Montauk or the U. S. S. Saugus.
Both ships were anchored in the Washington D.C. Naval Yard and used to house prisoners.
The Conspirators
